If you are thinking about making a claim, then you need to seek out advice for accidents from experts to help you make an informed choice. Below, you will find four of the main pieces of information you need to find out when making a claim for a personal injury:
# Establish your Eligibility
If you have been injured in an accident through somebody else’s actions, then you are legally entitled to make a claim for compensation under UK law. However, your eligibility for doing so depends on when your accident happened and how your accident happened – here’s some advice for accidents on this very topic:
- When – you only have three years from the date your accident happened or from the date your injuries became clear to make a claim. This is known as your Date of Limitation or your Date of Knowledge. After three years, your claim will become statute-barred or time-barred, preventing you or a lawyer from bringing your claim forward.
- How – you cannot be 100 per cent liable for the accident in which you were injured. You must have a level of diminished liability. The lesser your level of liability, then generally speaking the stronger your claim will be and the more compensation you can claim.
# Establish how strong your case is
Regardless of your eligibility for making a claim, when seeking out advice for accidents you should also consider how strong your case is. You need to know how likely your claim is to succeed and what challenged may lie ahead for your claim.
The only way to establish these is to discuss your case with an experienced claims advisor, or a lawyer specialising in personal injury law.
# Establish who your claim is against
Most claims will be with insurance companies – however sometimes they are with individuals or organisations. For example, if you have been injured in a road traffic accident, your claim likely will be with the other driver’s insurer. However, if you have been injured by an uninsured driver, then your claim will be with the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB).
# Find out more about ‘no win, no fee’
All personal injury claims in the United Kingdom are processed on what is known as a ‘no win, no fee’ agreement. The proper and correct name for this agreement is actually ‘conditional fee agreement’, and such agreements stipulate that the claimant has no legal fees to pay upfront, during or after a claim is processed successfully.
Instead, a lawyer’s legal costs are recuperated from either the other side or from the compensation awarded to the claimant; if the latter, a lawyer can only take a maximum of 25 per cent of the claim value by law. When making a claim, it is imperative that you fully understand the terms of your agreement and what the risks are.